About — Summer J. Hart

Biography

Summer J. Hart is an interdisciplinary artist and writer from Maine living in the Hudson Valley, New York. She is the author of two books of poetry: Boomhouse (2023, The 3rd Thing Press), which won the 2024 Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize, and What Came Down in the Smoke (forthcoming in 2026 from JackLeg Press). She is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Poetry and the 2022 Hellen Ingram Plummer Fellow at MacDowell. Her creative work has been supported by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Vermont Studio Center. Her writing appears in Best Small Fictions 2023 (Alternating Current Press); Mothman Was Here: Tales of the Uncanny (Tenpenny Books, 2024); Allium; Ballast; Bedfellows, Electric Literature, Grist, Hypertext Review, Heavy Feather Review, North American Review, Tyger Quarterly, Wildroof Journal, and elsewhere. Her mixed-media artworks have been featured in exhibitions across the United States including SPRING/BREAK NYC, Pen + Brush, The Parsonage, the Maine State House Gallery, Gitana Rosa Gallery, LeMieux Galleries, and Kasia Kay Art Projects. She has work in the permanent collections of The University of Hartford and the University of Southern Maine. Summer is an enrolled member of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation.

Publicity Contact: Heather Brown, heather@mindthebirdmedia.com

summerjhart@gmail.com

@summerjhart

listuguj mi’gmaq first nation

Munsee Lenape Land

My studio was built on the traditional and stolen land of the Munsee Lenape—the Wolf Clan, one of three main groups within the Lenape Nation.

Munsee Lenape Online Resources

Compiled by Hudson River Valley Institute

Munsee Lenape Digital Resources on Native Land: https://native-land.ca/maps/territories/munsee-lenape/
Delaware Nation: https://www.delawarenation-nsn.gov/about-us/
Multilingualism and Education in Wisconsin https://www.teachlangwisconsin.com/mohegan/munsee/lenape
Ramapo Munsee Lenape Nation: https://ramapomunsee.net/
“Remembering Pavonia” - Dutch soldiers attack Native Americans across the Hudson River. https://www.publichistoryproject.org/remembering-pavonia/.
Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians https://www.mohican.com/
The Written Record of the Voyage of 1524 of Giovanni da Verrazano as recorded in a letter to Francis I, King of France, July 8th, 1524 http://www.columbia.edu/~lmg21/ash3002y/earlyac99/documents/verrazan.htm

Artist Statement

My work is a meditation in handwork on memory, identity, and grief.

Professional Affiliations

2026-, Managing Editor, The 3rd Thing Press, Olympia, WA
2019-24, Artist Member, InLiquid Art + Design, Philadelphia, PA
2012-24, Artist Member, The Brooklyn Collective, Brooklyn, NY
2006-07, Printmaker Associate, The Ink Shop Printmaking Center, Ithaca, NY
2004-06, Co-Director, OPENSOURCE Art, Champaign, IL

Honors

2026, Peggy L. Osher Visiting Artist Fellow, The Osher Map Library and Center for Cartographic Research, The University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME
2025, Visiting Artist, Seguinland Institute, Georgetown, ME
2025, Visiting Poet and Recipient of the Good Poet Award, Seguinland Institute, Georgetown, ME
2024, Finalist, X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, Texas Review Press
2024, Finalist, The Berkshire Prize, Tupelo Press
2024, Winner of the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize, Utica College, Utica, NY
2024, Artist Lecturer, The University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME
2024, Visiting Poet, Poets & Writers Series, Temple University, Philadelphia PA
2023, Artist Fellow in Poetry, NYSCA/NYFA
2023, Contributor, Best Small Fictions 2023, Alternating Current Press
2023, Visiting Artist, Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
2022, Hellen Ingram Plummer Fellow, MacDowell, Peterborough, NH
2021, Land Acknowledgment Writer, The 3rd Thing Press
2021, Artist in Residence, Meadowbrook, Jenkintown, PA
2021, Finalist, 2021 Poetry Prize, The Mississippi Review
2020, Finalist, Spring 2020 Black River Chapbook Competition, Black Lawrence Press
2020, Finalist, 2020 Adrift Chapbook Competition, Driftwood Press
2018, Artist Resident, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

Nominations

2022, Pushcart Prize, “Spearing Sturgeon by Torchlight,” Jet Fuel Review
2021, Best of the Net, “No Man’s Land,” Driftwood Press
2020, Best of the Net, “44°41'00.3” N, 68°36'20.3” W,” Northern New England Review
2020, Finalist, Best of the Net, “Red Bird, Red Bird,” Third Point Press

Solo Exhibitions

2024, Out in May, Back by October, Art in the Capitol series, Maine State Capitol Building, Augusta, ME
2023, Out in May, Back by October, The Parsonage, Searsport, ME
2020, Unsaid, One Commerce Square, Philadelphia, PA
2019, Unwritten, Sohns Gallery, Bangor, ME
2019, Protection From What Remains, The Art Dept. Collective, Philadelphia, PA
2018, Further Evidence of Invasion, Create Community Space, Cold Spring, NY
2016, Birds & Bears & Flowers & Things, Sohn's Gallery, Bangor, ME
2011, Whatsoever the Wolf Wishes, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
2009, shining with the secret of it, CoLAB Projects, New Orleans, LA
2009, not a bird nested here, Kasia Kay Art Projects, Chicago, IL
2009, S. J. Hart: Paintings and Prints, Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland, ME
2006, Graveworks, Springer Cultural Center, Champaign, IL
2005, I lloutuve wyou too: paintings and drawings, IPRH, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
2004, Everyone I Work With, Millennium, Philadelphia, PA
2003, Figures: new paintings in acrylic, Grass Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2002, Diptychs, Kelly Writers’ House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
2002, Walking Bone: new works on paper, Millennium, Philadelphia, PA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024, Gilded Shadows, InLiquid Art at Park Towne Place, Philadelphia, PA
2021, In Pomerium, SPRING/BREAK, New York, NY
2021, Sculpture in the Glen, Gladwyne, PA
2020, New Now III, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2019, Furies, Fairies, Visionaries, curated by Alice Gray Stites, Pen + Brush, New York, NY
2019, Out of The Box, Gitana Rosa Gallery, Art Factory Studios, Paterson, NJ
2019, And Now For Something New, Vol. 1, LeMieux Galleries, New Orleans, LA
2016, Digging Through the Fat Takes Bushwick, The Living Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2015, Domesticated Animals in Space, Galerie Project, Brooklyn Fireproof, Brooklyn, NY
2011, Generations 8, AIR Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2011, Wish You Were Here 10, AIR Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2011, Apologues, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
2008, Petite Choses: Small Works Show, Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland, ME
2008, Hybrids & Other Sorts, BECA Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2008, Animals in Your Kingdom, Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2006, Birthday Suit, OPENSOURCE Art, Champaign, IL
2005, Nudes, Atlantic Works Gallery, East Boston, MA
2005, Skinless Capital: Neoliberalism and Resistance, OPENSOURCE Art
2005, My Body Is My Billboard, OPENSOURCE Art
2001-02, Projet Mobilivre/Bookmobile Project Tour, Space 1026 Gallery

Selected Poems

“Motherfucking Snakes,” Tyger Quarterly
“Sky Burial,” Heavy Feather Review
”Horse Crazy,” HAD, Hobart Pulp
”The Good News,” Hypertext Review, Fall / Winter 2021, Volume 9
”Spearing Sturgeon by Torchlight,” Jet Fuel Review, Issue 24
”A Man is an Earthworm in this Respect,” The Tiny Journal, Issue V
”44°41'00.3” N, 68°36'20.3” W,” NNER; E-Verse Radio feature, October 11, 2019
”Red Bird, Red Bird,” Third Point Press, Issue 14
”Real Turkey Supper,” South Broadway Ghost Society
”Boy Crazy,” Waxwing Literary Journal, Issue XX
“Salt for the Stain,” The Massachusetts Review, A Gathering of Native Voices, LXI No. 4
”Salt for the Stain,” Golden Walkman Magazine, July 2020 themed issue, “Ancestors, Ghosts, Listen,” guest-edited by W. Todd Kaneko
”Auspices 1- 10,” Pidgeonholes
”Auspices 31-34,” Annulet, Issue 1